New England

Hey, I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend. Another part of the holiday recap here.

So, after a day in Montreal we got a bus down to the USA. We crossed the border 4 times during this trip, and going into the USA was not a good experience. Our bus was late, but then it was in the queue for the border for 2 hours before we even got off the bus to be interrogated by the officials. Anyway, I think we ended up being about 3 hours late by the time we picked up our hire car, but there was still enough time for a touristy visit.

We could not go to Vermont without going to Ben and Jerry’s world! We did the tour (it was something like $4 each so not bad)- it was quite interesting although the factory only goes in the week, and this was a weekend, so some of it was a video instead. Then had a free sample (which was pretty big- Andy’s had an entire oreo biscuit in it!).

On the exit of the tour they had posters for the top 10 flavours, so of course I had to have a picture by my favourite! Then we joined the queue to buy an ice cream. We shared two scoops- one hazelnut one and one peanut butter/caramel one. They were good, but we had eaten breakfast very early (7am), been on the bus for hours, and this was around 4pm, so both of us decided that we should have had a smaller size- it was a bit too sweet.

They even have a flavour graveyard there…

Anyway, then we drove to our B&B which was just gorgeous. It was in New Hampshire (Jackson), and by the time we had driven there it was the evening. Trip Advisor to the rescue- there was a pub within walking distance (The Red Fox Bar and Grill)- they did the most amazing salad with roasted pear, nuts and goats cheese- I was sold!

On the drive to the mountains- a lovely view across the valley but huge clouds…

The weather was more overcast the next day. We headed out to the White Mountains National Forest, but got caught in a torrential downpour (when even the wipers on the fastest speed could not clear the rain)- we did have raincoats but we would have been soaked in seconds. We went to a visitor information centre to find out about the Old Man of the Mountain (the profile of a face on the side of a cliff that collapsed in 2003- there is now a memorial there, and do not under any circumstanced make light of the situation because the locals are very cut up about it- you could get memorial t-shirts and everything…). There was a walk to view it, but it was still pouring so we headed to another section of the park for a lovely walk to a waterfall (Flume Gorge).

We even saw a bear cave- run!

After a couple of hours we headed back to the car, and as the rain was coming our way again headed to some outlet shops.

In the evening we went to the Red Fox again- they had a brick oven for pizzas so we shared a veggie pizza and the grilled pear salad.

The following day we had breakfast at the B&B (which was fantastic- every day they had available fresh fruit, home-made granola, little home-made pastries, juices, teas etc, and then they had a menu for their cooked items- some sort of pancakes and some sort of French toast were on offer every day. One day I had French toast with bananas and pecans and one day spiced apple pancakes. Delicious.)  Anyway, back to the trip. It was raining again (hard) so we popped to some other outlet shops- I got some bargainous Gap jeans for about £18, and some Lindt chocolates.

Then we drove to Freeport in Maine. It was a really pretty town, with some outlet shops but also some quirky places too. After a few hours wandering around (and a Starbucks “lunch”- we don’t tend to have lunch on holiday- we each had a drink and shared a piece of pumpkin bread as we were hungry) we drove out to see the lighthouse at Rockland. You had to walk along a breakwater for about a mile, and it was really misty, so pretty spooky. We kept hearing fog horns but could not see the ships!

It was pretty, but not like the sort of lighthouse I imagined! Walking back was strange too as we could not see the mainland because of all the mist. We still had a bit of driving after that (a couple of hours) so by the time we reached the town we were starving. We saw a Friendly’s diner and so that decision was made. They did do a veggie burger, but they also did tomato soup with a grilled cheese, and I fancied the soup so went for that with a side salad.

As we finished our meal the lights flickered and huge crashes of thunder rumbled about- we had to sprint to the car and were drenched! The storm was crazy- lightning every 10 seconds or so, and such heavy rain. The sat-nav took us straight to the hotel, and luckily we could park under cover to unload the car.

The next day we woke to glorious sunshine, and luckily those were our only really rainy days. I don’t mind a bit of rain and of course we pack raincoats, but some of that rain was so heavy we would have been soaked in seconds which is never fun. And of course the views are not quite as stunning!

Do you have lunch on holiday? We tend to have breakfast and then a snack like a cereal bar or banana, and then dinner.

Does rain stop play on your holiday, or do you carry on regardless?